Although IBCS recommend to use gray colors for plotting, tidycharts enables user to define their color palette. The same applies to styles, the default IBSC are implemented, but there is a way to set one’s own styles. In this vignette we will show how to customize the package.

Colors

The defaults

data_time_series <- data.frame(
  time = month.abb[1:8],
  Poland = round(2 + 0.5 * sin(1:8), 2),
  Germany = round(3 + sin(3:10), 2),
  Slovakia = round(2 + 2 * cos(1:8), 2)
)
column_chart(data_time_series, x = 'time', 
             series = c('Poland', 'Germany', 'Slovakia'), interval = 'months')

Customization

Firstly, we need to define a data frame with 6 rows and 2 columns. Column bar_colors contains 6 colors which will be used to draw the bars. Column text_colors contains color of labels that will be drawn on bars. Ideally, text_colors are contrasting to corresponding row of bar_colors. Users with a lack of the sense of aesthetics are encouraged to select color palette with a help of dedicated software :

color_df <- data.frame(
  bar_colors = c("rgb(61, 56, 124)", 
                 "rgb(0,89,161)", 
                 "rgb(0,120,186)", 
                 "rgb(0,150,193)",
                 "rgb(0, 178, 184)", 
                 "rgb(0,178,184)"),
  text_colors = c("white", 
                  "white", 
                  "white", 
                  "white",
                  "white", 
                  "black")
)

Then, we use set_colors function from tidycharts package.

set_colors(color_df)

Now, we can generate chart using new palette.

column_chart(data_time_series, x = 'time', 
             series = c('Poland', 'Germany', 'Slovakia'), interval = 'months')

Styles

The defaults

Styles are used to indicate different type of presented data. actual, previous, plan, forecast styles are implemented out of the box.

column_chart(data_time_series, x = 'time', 
             series = 'Poland', interval = 'months',
             styles = c(rep('actual',7), 'plan'))

Customization

When defining styles, one must define stroke and fill parameters as column names. Style names are unrestricted. Use set_styles to bind styles_df to the package environment.

styles_df <- rbind(
  actual = list(fill = "rgb(64,64,64)", stroke = "rgb(64,64,64)" ),
  fictual = list(fill = "rgb(221,28,119)", stroke = "rgb(136,86,167)")
)

set_styles(styles_df)

Now, refer to styles through given names and use them in chart functions.

column_chart(data_time_series, x = 'time', 
             series = 'Poland', interval = 'months',
             styles = c(rep('actual',7), 'fictual'))

Resetting to defaults

If you want to restore the default styles and colors, just use restore_defaults function.